Letting go

Sometimes as a gardener (much more often as an impulsive novice, like myself) you have to admit defeat or own up to your mistakes, so back in Spring I decided to face my horticultural demons and put things right.

Perhaps my biggest blunder was purchasing a Buddleia on impulse and boy has that plant suffered. Although a fairly common plant, the Butterfly bush always reminds me of train journeys when I was a child, amongst all the graffiti and rubbish by the railways line there would be scores of these striking shrubs. All it ever wanted was a sunny spot but my existing beds were just too jam-packed so it was stuck in a corner. After spending a lifetime in various shady situations it had become a very miserable specimen, so I finally decided to take action. Now it’s growing happily alongside the disused Wendy House, sheltered by the Escallonia hedge and catching all the rays it can ever want, it’s the least I could do.

The next gaffe was to plant a Cotoneaster as an edge softener for a railway sleeper six inches off the ground. It would grow its allotted half a foot in no time, then out of desperation slowly start encasing the drive, car and all. After several harsh pruning sessions I copped on that this plant wasn’t fulfilling its true purpose and would look much nicer against a wall. I’ve now found it a suitable spot growing happily against an outhouse, which will probably disappear eventually under a leafy haze. No bother, one less painting job to do.

One of my most common clangers is putting a back of border plant too near the front. A familiar story, buying a plant that you shouldn’t, and then in desperation, planting it where you definitely shouldn’t. I now keep things in an appropriate size pot until I find their ideal position. Growing shrubs from seed is very rewarding but brings the same problem only multiplied. From one packet of seeds I ended up with four Cytisus Battandieris; Shrub one is thriving at the back of a sunny border, Shrub two died in a container, Shrub three I gave to my sister-in-law, which just left Shrub four. The latter was flopping over the drive in a really creepy way and something had to be done but what? I needed a replacement for a Grey Broom (Dorycnium hirsutum), in my blue, pink and silver bed, which had just given up the ghost. It is an attractive shrub but just doesn’t seem to last very long, this was my second. What better to fill its shoes than the ill placed fourth Pineapple Broom with appropriate silvery foliage. It means my bed of romance will have a yellow intruder but as neither of my brooms have ever flowered yet it is probably nothing to worry about.

This therapeutic cleansing process was almost at an end. I removed a Stag’s Horn Sumach, which was in a really silly place and stealing the limelight from my beautiful old Myrtle. Then a Vinca ‘Major’ that was trying to do its ground cover thing on my lovely stone pathway (naughty, naughty!). And finally I dug up a healthy looking Camelia that has budded for the last few years, never producing a flower and not likely to either. It’s all about letting go and moving on.

Written 21st September 2005